Ok..so they are manhole covers!
Anyone living in Mumbai during the rains is pretty familiar with the sudden bursts of torrential rains. Makes me kinda think that God suddenly turned the tap on up there.
What amuses me is not what goes on up there , but what literally goes on below us.
Since it rains like crazy a few months every year I guess the BMC decided not to sacrifice space for storm drains and just build roads to the last possible inch. Now when it rains all that water has no where to go!! which of course leaves ordinary citizens getting all the goo on their clothes as they wade thru them. SO as a stop gap BMC opens up manholes to let all that water go down somewhere!!! Next Some unsuspecting wader falls into these open holes.
The drama hungry media where happy to blame the entire situation on the BMC who were already miffed with Uncle Sam warning it's citizens about open manholes in amchi Mumbai. A little bit of investigation reveals that most of the missing man hole covers have actually been stolen!!! and the BMC blames the Chinese Olympics!!!
Sure enough Uncle Sam is facing a similar situation back home, this time they are blaming China and india
If only the scrap market for my old-no longer fitting clothes was as lucrative.. sigh, Aah well we all need iron to complete our concrete jungles. Though i don't quite fancy my new house built with manhole covers in a new avtaar
On the trail of Swere Caps and chinese olympics
Miss'd Out
Recently I shed my official single status. My parents have been smiling ear to ear since the blessed event. Fulfilling all the required rituals with enthusiasm i didn't know existed. Oh the joy!! so much so that my own brother danced with the barathi's .
All those years of swearing by simple, small and private weddings where flushed out like used tissue by my parents. Though i can salvage some of my pride by having escaped an elaborate cermony at an unearthly hour(ok not so unearthly for after hours party lovers!!) I can boast of a multi-cultural 1 hour wedding. ( my dear cousins had to sit thru hours n hours)
This of course translates to me not having valid reason to argue with my cell phone operator to have my mrs changed to ms. On the bright side I have by virtue of marriage come into pocession of TBs of disk space and countless media files. I am sure I can create plenty of more space by deleting my husband's pornographic collection(sshhhhh i didn't say that out loud).
Of course there have been changes to my life. I now share closet space with my husband, but in exchange for an upgrade to my ipod and my phone bills crashing I ain't complaining.
I read cosmo in the pretext of learning new recipe. My mother -inlaw thinks that i am working while writing this blog.
People often ask me how life is after marriage, i snigger since the question should really be directed to my in-laws and my husband.
hee hee smiling ear to ear.
On High Heel Note
Life is pretty good especially so when you are proved em all wrong!!!
I've been told on several occasions by people, from all walks of life, with varying amount of asperity on the dangers of wearing high heeled shoes.
Slip disks, back aches, slips, falls....the wise cracks of committing suicide by jumping of my own shoes etc i listen to with amusement.
Today however when i was climbing down the stairs by some freak my dupatta got caught in my shoe and i (note) almost fell.
The high point being that since i was exercising the care my fashionably high heel warrants i was able to prevent the fall. I can effectively reconstruct the image of me tumbling down the stairs like rag doll had things been different
it has happened often to me and my fellow gals so often wherein we tend to trip and stumble and fall more often when we are wearing our sensible flatties.
So as a clumsy always stumbling person..my high heels are my life saver...god bless all my beautiful pairs and may i have many more.
~ She with the most shoes wins
So long
And so as the clock moves ever so slowly towards the seventh hour,
I look vaguely upon the lighted monstrosity,
hoping for words to flow.
Alas soon I will bid thee good bye
I hope the next owner shall look at you more gleefully than i
The dull grey dusk has set in already,
It will be time soon for me to leave
on good terms we shall part
our paths shall never cross again
YAY…I get out of here at last :)
Baby Boo Boo
Ooooooohh u cuuuuutee baby. Uuuuuuu aree choooo chhhhwwweeeeet
That about sums up the average reaction of an adult left with a baby for 1 minute.
I am not beyond this cooing myself. Though I honestly believed that's where i'd stop.
But fate and my ever sub- yet hyperactive -conscious proved me wrong. I was spending time with my one year old niece and her mum had dressed her up in a cute pair of pink long-johns. I had the strongest temptation to stick on a matching pair for bunny ears on her head. I also almost always spike up a baby's hair to give a punk baby look.
I wonder why adults dress babies up in clothes they wouldn't want to wear on any day except Halloween(may be). Just cause babies can't express their discontent on the subject and are unable to rip off the costumes themselves, should we really take advantage of that?
These pictures lay the groundwork for future embarassments. I mean we are still trying to hide our own baby snaps where we are wearing bunny hats and that photo every boy has when he was dressed as a girl.
I am glad that i only have to hide some albums and unlike my niece who is going to have to remove it from the hard drive and inbox of every one of my relatives.
Mussorie - Grand Finale
Oh yeah!! For some reason R woke up at 6:30 am ...and went for a walk. I chose to sleep in since anytime before 8:00 am is unthinkable for me. R informs me that she wakes up early in the morning. Frankly she gets along with a lots less sleep than I do.
Anyways we tackle a heavy breakfast of chole bhature and poori. I love walking by these little places where they make em hot and fresh in the mornings. We decided to hike to lal tibba which is the highest point in Musoorie and offers a great view of the Himalayas. We set off enthusiastically and faltered slightly when we realised that it was a good 5 kms away and was uphill, everyone we met looked at us doubtfully. I'll admit neither of us looks very fit. We decided to walk anyways after being encouraged by a sweet lady who sells sweaters. She said very nonchalantly that it was hardly gonna matter and it'd take us 45 minutes. Onward we marched. the first half of the hike was mostly though the narrow streets and we were thankful to walk the distance since there were several traffic jams. Once we got past the most occupied area we started walking uphill. It was STEEP and we somehow kept going stopping every 5 minutes to catch our breaths. But the view on the way were totally worth it. We reached the chauraha where the road becomes a T junction with one side going to sister's bazaar and the other to lal tibba. onward we marched till be reached our first roadblock. The road was barricaded. We jumped over it and kept walking. The climb hence forth wasn't as steep so we could walk it easily while taking tonnes of photos. We finally reached what appeared to be the top when
R(yells): Is that the mountains
Me: No they are just clouds
R: No look it is mountains
Me: Wow it really is
I can be excused for the error since the snow peaked mountains where whiter than the clouds and they were actually rising above it.
there was an observation tower which was closed..but R and I had come too far to leave without a good view so we managed to jump a couple of gates and get to the top. My first break-in :)The view from there was totally worth it. I could only see mountains all around. It sure made me want to get closer to the Himalayas. That's where I am heading next. Our reverie was interrupted by a shrill yell demanding how we got up there. Alas the owners had arrived and were screaming since we climbed up :) quite understandable. We paid up for the observation tickets and were able to use binoculars to see Kedarnath, the tibetian border and gangotri too. We headed back down and went over to sister's bazaar where R and I met an very interesting lady who owns a handicraft store there. Her family owns most of the shops there and the Cinnamon rolls that they sell there is delicious. R and I headed back at the chauraha we treated ourselves to some yummy waffles.
our journey back down to the Mall area took us less than 30 minutes. We had lunch at tavern which was really good. We headed over for one last trip to camel back road which was a little disappointing. We managed to see the sunset there. After that one last stop to Casa Mia for some more yummy cakes.
We headed over to a bus station where we managed to find a taxi which was heading to dehradun. The ride down literally had us praying since the driver was probably being chased by demons. Everyone in the car was praying for their lives and controlling Nausea. I have never felt happier getting out of a car.
We checked into a hotel for the night and on checking the ticket found that the train left at 5 and not 6. Thus avoiding a catastrophe. I think henceforth R and I will be double checking all our departure times.
We made it to Delhi right on time and ate some more at wenger's :)
Most Memorable image: R's face at the platform after missing the train
Best food: Pasta at Clarke's
Favourite dessert: Rum cake at Casa mia
Best View: Lal tibba
Favourite Moment: Standing on top of the hillock near the Buddhist monastery and listening to the wind
Mussoorie Mail
Ahh the joy of sleep snuggled in a warm railway bunker......
AAck the jab in the back
R: "Wake up!! our stop is next"
A: Grunts
R: WAKE UP!
A: Last stop is ours (turns over and tries to sleep again)
Finally the train comes to a stop..a complete stop...the final stop
We step out and can't believe we have actually made it to Dehradoon and on TIME!!! so far so good
At the station we were accosted by several autowala's "Rickshaw madam" etc etc lots of army people walking around (surprise surprise) We walk around a lil cuz i needed to clear out my befuddled head. Though at this point i must stop and specifically talk about R in the next few line
You seen a Jack in the Box?
You seen a human jack in the Box?
Let's think of sleep as the Box
Now let me tell you that it is no exaggeration that R would be the jack!!!!I
mean seriously, if i had that gift i would'nt need to consume the bile juice disguised as coffee every single day at work.
Anyways my state of beffudleness ends quickly and we find out that the bus stop is on the way out of the station. R and I manage to potter or moossey(?) around as she likes to call it. The bus finally leaves at 7:00 am bright and early, the conductor informed us that we will reach Mussorie by 8:00 am.
The bus laboriously climbed the twisty jalebi roads and paused for a breather every now and then. We arrive at the Palace station. We get off the bus and look for a hotel. We almost settle for a cheap hotel when we find "The Clarks" It is right there on Mall road, the rooms are incredible, it was an old Raj time grocery store which the current owners bought way back in 1926. The place is pristine and extremely well maintained. OOh and did i mention that it was cheap too? R and I fell in love with the place at first sight. The owner of the place is a matronly wonderful aunty who gave us a discount since we were only girls. The room we got was awesome. It had a great view of the valley and was perfectly clean and simple.
Anyways we decide to get breakfast out of the way since I wanted to watch the Japanese Grand Prix at 10:00. We wandered around a bit, taking in the sites and sounds of the place. A good tip while in Mussoorie is that the best time to take in the view in the mall area is before 10:00 am since the tourists are not out and the place is almost empty and one can enjoy the beauty of the place at leisure and listen to the sounds of nature.We found a little place where we hogged on cheese omelets
While watching the race the valley suddenly mists up. The sky was blue as Madonna's veil all morning and suddenly it became dark and grey. We had a fun time watching the mists slowly creep into our room thru the windows. All hopes for a misty room were dashed when we were forced to close the windows because it became a little cold.
An exciting race later we headed out for lunch to Rice bowl. Which is just a hop and skip away from clarkes. it is a good chinese and Tibetan restaurant and i enjoyed my noodle soup. Then we went to Casa Mia one of the best bakeries ever. R had a lemon pie and I a rum ball. The lemon pie was awesome and the rum ball was simply the best I've ever eaten. yum yum. Both these places are just ten steps away from Clarke's.
We buy tickets for the cable car to Gun point. However the length of the queue made us head over to happy valley instead. there is a tibetian monastery there. It is a little off-beat from the main touristy places. We took a rickshaw till the start of happy valley and walked down the rest of the way to the monastery. We climbed a a little hillock, when we reached its peak we had an unhindered view of the valley. the only sounds one can hear are the flags flapping in the wind and the occasional distant sound of prayer bells. It was beautiful! We then headed to the monastery which was at the base of the hillock. This is my first time at a buddhist temple and i liked the experience.
We managed to make it back up without loosing much breath and were happy that we chose to walk as we could see so much more of the area than if we had taken a cab. We took a taxi back to the mall area. There was a huge traffic jam just before the mall road. So we walked from the library end to clarke. After a quick beak where i ate a banana slice and R a chocolate truffle we headed over to the cable car. The queue was still long but we didn't want to waste our tickets and by the time we got up there it was past dusk. We took in a few sites while there was little light had some chocolate milk and headed back down in the cable car after a long wait. Gun hill is very commercialised and the stores have blocked out a lot of views. Next time i think I'll skip the cable car and simply walk up. there early in the morning.
We had dinner at clarkes since R had read that the pasta was good there. It definitely lived up to its name. It was really good. Note that pastas have to be ordered in advance.
We walked over to tavern a restaurant which was also highly recommended but we didn't enter since a party was going on and the music was bad. Instead we were bedazzled by a little shop near tavern which specialised in Tibetan jewellery. The pieces were beautiful and very reasonable. A must stop for the ladies who like a little chunky jewellery.
We headed back to the room but not before buying an apple pie from Casa Mia. The little bakery is seriously awesome!!!!
Our first day in Mussorie was complete and we were both satisfied at having covered a significant bit. We had decided long before that we were going to avoid the touristy spots and it paid off well.
zzzzzzz